


Prequel

by evs14u



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, from my tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 07:22:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13565658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evs14u/pseuds/evs14u
Summary: Barba and Melody's lives change forever when Rafael is shot.





	1. Chapter 1

The seconds after a shot is fired are a weird space-time. Everyone is silent; they do not realize what happened. Or at least that’s what I have been told. For me the ER is like a beehive on the surface confusion, yet if you looked deeper you see order and logic in every corner. Which is why when I heard the loud blaring of the siren or the flashing yellow lights, I stayed calm.

Even when I heard the EMT yell “GSW to the chest, no exit,” I was fine, this was my job. I was here to be the surgeon that would try everything I could to save this person’s life. That was my job, but then I saw Liv rushing in, someone on the team had been shot.

God Damnit Carisi what sort of bullshit did you pull this time? It’s one thing to be an active detective it’s another thing to come to the ER every other week, with some new wound, because as Rollins put it “he loves too much.” So when I saw a dark suit and a bright colored tie and the telltale suspenders I froze, what the hell? How? Why? Luckily I spent years working on gunshot victims and the muscle memory took over.

“Mr. Barba, we are going to just get that bullet out of you.” I couldn’t call him Rafael I just couldn’t, that would make him real.

“Mel…” he tried.

“You are going to be fine sir.” I couldn’t see him as my boyfriend he was my patient and nothing more.

“Melody I have to…”

“Shut up Rafael I am trying to save your life here.” Seeing the distended veins and what looked like fluid building up in the lungs, I said, “Shit, I am going to have to crack his chest.”

“What here?” I hated interns, couldn’t they just be like good little bunnies and hop to it.

“Where would you suggest Intern 2 should I wait until the x-ray is open or should I lug him up the stairs to an E.R. Ok, first we need to drain the pleural effusion, prep a chest tube kit.” The next couple of hours went well, they covered his face and i could dissociate the man i loved from the surgery puzzle in front of me. I walked out with every muscle in my body screaming for sleep, but I saw the whole squad including Dodds sr. and knew I was going to have to explain.

“Melody how is he?” Dodds Sr. was still covered in Barba’s blood, even looking at it made this whole thing all the more real.

“He is as good as expected, I mean what the hell happened‽”

“He wasn’t supposed to be there.”

“I don’t care about what was supposed to happen I care about what happened.”

“There is was a guy who was molesting… we got him in the chest a couple of time he should be in…” Yet a nurse that came striding in holding an ER chart cut off Dodds.

“Dr., Dr. Huang is asking for your assistance in OR 3 with his cardiac patient.”

“Mel you’re not going to he’s the…” This time I cut him off.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t have a choice.”

“Mel,” Liv jumped in, they weren’t going to let this go.

“I don’t. Doctors aren’t instruments of the NYPD, and we aren’t allowed to choose patients on specifics.”

“Melody it’s….” Carisi tried, but again I cut across him.

“Samuel Mudd set Booth’s leg after he shot Lincoln. Doctors are liable in this country if they don’t treat the patient right in front of them. So that’s the way it goes. You set the leg.” With that I swept from the room, to save the guy who had almost killed the man I loved.


	2. TBA

TO BE DETERMINED


	3. Chapter 3

“What the hell are you doing?” Rafael looked scared as I took out my suture kit.

“Practicing this new approach to a subcuticular suture out of Boston, it is supposed to reduce tear risks in arterial embolisms, personally I think they inflated their results, but anything I can do to keep up my technique.”

“So you stich an orange.” He looked even more confused when he saw the small fruit in my hand.

“It’s surprisingly accurate to the real thing.”

“Oranges”

 

“Yeah, peaches are too thin and apples too hard, at least if you want to replicate the heart muscle.” I turned back to my work; I anchored my stitch, and started my suture.  

“Don’t go breaking my heart.” Oh I am going to kill him, he knew how much I hated this.

“You can’t break a heart it’s a muscle you can tear it you can not break it.”

“I think all pop songs ever would disagree.” He smiled over at me; he had gotten the rise he wanted out of me.  

“I am ok, I got science in my corner.”

“They let you carry around suture material?”

“Why not? It’s some nylon, surgical scissors, forceps, and a curved needle.”

“I am just saying if I was the guard at the entrance I would have checked.”

“I think he saw the look of Oh-my-god-my-dumb-ass-boyfriend-gave-our-home-number-to- a-crazy-person in my eyes, and thought that girl needs a break.”

“I do not think Mike could see all of that in your eyes.”

“I am not so sure I am pretty good at emoting.” First suture perfect, suck it Boston.  

“You didn’t cry when we watched Bambi!”

“Why should I, uhh a hunter killed a deer, thank you for that boring reality.”

“What about Dumbo?”

“That freaky elephant?” We had seen all of these movies when we had been reluctantly put in charge of Zara for an evening.

“Mel!”

“I am sorry but I don’t get it. It’s like when every girl when all teary eyed at the end of Titanic. Like they had never been introduced to what happened to the titanic, it turns out hot people can die too. Not to even speak of that dumb ass door.” He knew he could not win this one so, he asked

“Any new gossip, any young intern sleeps with their attending?”

“Ugh God I hope not, they would incur so many violations not least of which is that it is clique. Yes we work insane but i have never slept with anyone at work, sex drive isn’t really high when you are covered in dust sweat and blood.”  

“I can’t say that doesn’t please me”

“Yeah, I save all my dusty sex for you” I finished my fifth perfect suture and put the now perfectly sutured but inedible fruit away.

“Nothing about what we do is dusty.” He put his arms around me and kissed my head, I had never been happier.


	4. Chapter 4

“You know I never asked what was that lunch meeting was about last week, the one you were so nervous about.”

“Nothing.” I knew was going to ask, but I was hoping I could dissuade him from more questions.

“You aren’t nervous for nothing, I have seen you hold a human heart without yours skipping as much as a beat.”

“That’s the last time I allow you to watch surgery, look it was nothing ok, no need to talk about it.”

“Melody.” Yeah he wasn’t going to let it go, that was his I-am-getting-what-I-want voice which usually spelled a good time, but not now.  

“Ok fine it was a job offer from Boston General.”

“Wait the?”

“Yes.”

“But it is the…”

“Yes.” I was just going to have to wait him out.

“What happened?”

“I said no.” It was that simple.

“Wait what?” Rafael looked completely shocked.  

“I told you it was no big deal they asked and I said no.”

“But it’s the…”

“Yes it has one of the best cardiac departments in the country, and I said no.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Doesn’t it though?” I didn’t want to have to spell it out for him but given the look he was still giving me, it was going to be necessary.

“How? You are the queen of logic explain it to me.”

“It’s simple if we moved to Boston, and you would have take the Massachusetts bar, which by the way you should have done the first time you were there. That would put you out of commission for a while, and drive you and then in turn me crazy. Then when you spend the time and the money to get your bar, then you need to work somewhere and work yourself back up in a DA’s office, and you aren’t the youngest anymore. Plus your family is here, and would you really want to leave SVU, from everything I have heard, you weren’t truly happy till you met those crazed people with hearts of gold. Also I would have reestablished my dominance and play office politics even more than I have to now. All I want are good surgeries, terrorize some interns, and occasionally make some sort of medical breakthrough, maybe get a technique named after me.” Even after spelling it out he still looked shocked.

“I didn’t think I was part of your considerations.”

“Of course you are we live together.”

“But you said it was “rent purposes”.”

“Ok you need to learn Melody signs better.”

“I have got most of them down.”

“Gotta read me better buddy.”

“Cariño, you spend most of our time being, you know, you. Then you say something like this. Thank you.”

“What does it mean for me to be me?”

“A woman that stitches up oranges.”

“And you are the crazy person who gave our home address.” I turned to face him, and then cupped his face with my hands. “We are not young anymore we can’t just go hop from place to place, and if you hadn’t given out our home address to killers, we could be having dinner not composed of the NYC DA’s office communal vending machine.”

“You aren’t going to let that go any time soon?”

“I’ll let it go right after I get to sleep in my bed again.”

.“Hey if there is a real we, what does that mean for our future.”  

“Oh fuck me, the second I share something like this you get all gooey on me.”

“You said it yourself “we aren’t young anymore,” what do you want to be doing at 85?”

“Squabbling with you?” I put my head against his chest.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice.” He pulled me closer, so I was completely enveloped in his embrace.

“It would be, but I do get your concern. We aren’t young and my biological clock is ticking.”

“What the?” Oh god, not this again.  

“It’s true, it is biological fact. Women who pass 35 lose fertility at an accelerated rate, plus with my issues, it’s not going to be easy, so if you do want this, and I know you, you do. You want kids so bad, I see the way you look at Noah and Jesse. With that also comes the fact that when this kid goes to college you will be in your early 60s, and with the way you eat…” I started to spiral and to help me out, Rafael just kissed my head, and murmured into my hair,

“Mel, Mel, Mel, breathe you are right we need to talk about this, and yes we need to plan, not only about the baby but about marriage I know how you feel but…” I looked up at him and smirked, “Catolico?”

“Yeah.”

“Smile let’s talk about all this when there aren’t people trying to kill you, look at the time. I got to get to work. You know saving lives, which I would do a lot better if I could sleep in my own bed.” I got up and stretched, as much as I complained this had been nice, we didn’t have a lot of time for each other these days.

“Te amo.”

“I love you too, and don’t stay here all night, go sleep on Liv’s couch or something.” I pecked his head, his cheek and then his lips.

“Will do cariño,” he pulled me down for one last brief kiss. As I walked out the building, I thought that he would probably work a bit and go Liv’s, what I didn’t know is that he would never get there.   


	5. Chapter 5

Against all the odds both men had made it out of the O.R. alive.

“Dr.?” Nurse Roberts pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah.” I pulled out my phone and checked Rafael’s vitals again. I had my interns giving me up to the minute reports.  

“The detectives need to take your statement.” What the hell?

“But I wasn’t…”

“That’s what they said.” She turned back to her paperwork, and I absentmindedly said “Thanks Roberta.” I walked down to our lounge, and up to Olivia and Chief Dodds.

“What can I do for you detectives?”

“When can we talk to them, we want to make sure we get these guys.”

“When they are ready, both of them just survived gunshot wounds, and I have advised Tejas to counsel.” I flipped through his chart absentmindedly.

“What?” I knew they would react badly.

“He deserves proper representation.”

“He tried and almost succeeded in killing…”

Yes Olivia, trust me I know. You aren’t the one who just had to root around in her boyfriend’s internal organs. As for Me. Tejas I told him to get counsel before talking to you, he has the right to a proper defense even if he just tried to kill my boyfriend.”

“How can you.” Chief Dodds asked still looking dumbfounded.

“Compartmentalization.”

Much later Olivia went to see Barba, when she walked in she saw Melody, sitting next to his bed, asleep. One of her interns was checking Barba’s vitals, and upon seeing Liv, he said, “You are asking yourself how she can be so cold? She isn’t, she just acts that way, she has a hard shell, and it comes from being a top surgeon. If you want proof Boston Gen offered her one of their top attending spots, and she turned them down, to stay here with him.”

“I know I am sorry it’s just…”

“It takes a while for people to warm up to her, most it takes years. If you love her by the time she leaves surgery you will be on the short end of the list.”

“Then how did Barba manage in such a short time?”

“I don’t know the first time they met they were at each other’s throats, she had done the same thing she had did here, advised a killer to counsel, and he was furious but somewhere along the line he got through to her. Now, even though she would never admit it, she can’t live without him.”

At some point I had woken up and found an asleep Olivia on Barba’s hospital room couch, I got up quietly and decided to make a much needed coffee run. When I came back I saw she was also awake, “Coffee.”

“Yeah thanks.” Olivia took the coffee, and drank it greedily.

“I am happy you stayed,” I said sitting down next to her.   

“Yeah I couldn’t have you calling up counsel for all of our perps.”

“Yeah I am sorry about that, I am not sorry i did it, I am sorry that I felt that i needed to.” I decided then and there that I finally wanted to talk to her about what had been bothering me since the beginning. “Look I know you dont like me, let me finish. I know you dont like me, you probably think I am cold and closed off, and trust me you aren’t in the minority there. Yes I know what they say about me ice queen surgeon and all, I promise I am working on… defrosting a bit.”

“I don’t hate you, I actually quite like you, you and him work so well together, and I can see how happy you both are. I know I am sorry too I shouldn’t have I was just…”

“Shocked yeah, and I know they convicted Mudd for treason, I just I couldn’t let him die no matter what the personal cost.” I soften my voice and asked what had plagued me since I scrubbed in with Dr. Huang, “Do you think he’ll hate me?”

“Hate you for saving this guy’s life?”

“It’s just we were in such a good place, finally, we have had so many…”

“Yeah I know.”

“How he would never tell anyone.”

“He didn’t have to every time we got a “what the hell is it this time?” We knew something had gone wrong between you two.”

“That’s him, God we were talking about having kids, and marriage. I never thought, I would have something like that.”

“Trust me it happens, especially when you don’t think it will.”

“Hey when it does happen can I ask you all my questions?”

“Of course.” We lapsed into comfortable silence, and after a few minutes I heard a strained, “Cariño.”

“Hey how are you?’ I got up and stroked his cheek, without me noticing, Olivia left to give us some privacy.

“I feel I don’t know like someone rooted around in my chest.”

“Jokes Barba? Really Jokes, you were shot what were you thinking?”

“Well i wasn’t thinking I am going to get shot on my way home.”

“Wait why were you going home i told you to go to Olivia’s.”

“You said you were uncomfortable. And i know how much you love your pillow and your blanket, so I.” I roughly pulled a pillow out from under his head, and started hitting him with it. “Hey! - What is wrong with you?! - Stop hitting me!”

“I’ve been waiting twenty four hours to hit you.”

“I appreciate your patience, Cariño.” He smirked, and starting hitting him again.

“I don’t want your wise-ass remarks”.

“Mel I am fine, I am not going anywhere. I am fine, we’re fine, we have our future back you know the one with this” He touched my stomach, “and this” he touched the left side of my chest.  

“Thank you for not dying, and I love you.”

“I love you too Cariño. Ready for the next step in our life?” He held out his hand and I grabbed it. “With you? Always?”  


End file.
